Friday, March 14, 2008

It's only been one week since the season finale of this year's ProRun but you're feeling a bit low and are in need of something to take your mind off of the void ProRun has left in your life. I'm a sad, pathetic shell of a person but I still have found time to branch out and live a life that isn't completely dependent on ProRun. I will now present to you three things I have been dabbling in to pass the time until ProRun starts up again.

1) I've been throwing myself back into finding tolerable music to listen to. I work in a music mega-chain and there is a tendency to get so familiar with just plain old crappy music that you completely forget about anything good in the world. The soundtrack of your life becomes infused with the Justin Timberlakes, Britney Spears, and Ciaras of the world instead of maintaining a semi-obscure indie cred that you've been known to fawn over. Whenever I find myself listening to more J.Holiday than Broken Social Scene I tend to look overseas for my music in hopes of finding something spectacular to call my own even if for only a few months while its still unavailable domestically.

Estelle is apparently a well respected hip hop-ish artist in England. I may be the only one who had no idea about this. I stumbled upon her "American Boy" single awhile back and fell head over heels for it. Yeah, it features the unimaginable ass that is Kanye West but it's something that can be overlooked by the catchiness of the song. I'm a big fan of overly poppy-hip hop infused soul music. I'm huge fan of Kelis and all of that mess. I'm a fan of this song.

Duffy aka Aimee Duffy is a welsh artist who was on the Welsh version of "Pop Idol" which is the precursor to "American Idol." She came in second. I guess I could have taken that as a sign of shit going bad but I heard her song "Mercy" (which unfortunately for my love of obscure imports is an Itunes free single this week) and went crazy for it. "Mercy" has an old school sing-a-long vibe to it, with all of its 'yeah, yeah, yeah's and such. I've been fortunate enough to have a co-worker who is love with british female singers and burned me a copy of her album. Some compare her sound to Dusty Springfield and others in that vein of music. Her voice can get annoying at times but overall I think its a nice ride through nostalgic easy going pop music.

Adele may be my favorite of the three simply because of two things. The first has to do with her music. It's pop soul at its finest. Her voice has a smooth yet at points scratchy, dark tone to it and she found a perfect way to display that unique instrument within her album. She's been touted as the "new" Amy Winehouse, something which I'm not positive is a good thing. Overseas she's been garnering buzz before she even released her album, 19. The second reason she's my favorite is because she's a bigger sized lady. Girlie is a size 14/16 and I love it! It's a very rare thing to see a bigger person in pop and I think its very refreshing. Not only does she have an infectious sound but she's normal sized. Please make this a sign of things to come... Lead the way Adele!!

2) I recently was given the glorious gift of 2 at a time unlimited subscription to Netflix.I've watched some movies I wanted to see, some movies my boyfriend wanted see, and movies that I would NEVER pay actual money to own. In reality all of the movies on my queue are old foreign films, silent movies, and pretentious art movies/documentaries. That being said my free ride recently ended and I found myself upgrading to three movies at a time unlimited each month. My last three netflix picks are as follows:"Zoo," the documentary about horse fucking. No, but seriously this movie is about one man, Kenneth Pinyan, who died after engaging in intercourse with a horse and those who surrounded him at the time of his death. It was shot in a way that was frustrating because its mostly darkened shots of people sitting around while someone talks vaguely about what actually happened. The cut scenes between the actual vocal parts are darkly lit and very boring. Overall I would've liked to have more blunt facts than three to four people vaguely discussing how a man loves his horse... alot.

"Silk" is just another Keira Knightley costume drama. I LOVE Keira Knightley costume dramas but hate Keira Knightley as a personality and in anything other than costume dramas. A friend of mine recently observed just how many costume dramas the girl has done and believe me that she is far better known as a character in one of her period pieces than she is for "Domino." The story is about Michael Pitt pretending to be French and smuggling silkworms. During his smuggling stays in Japan he falls for a concubine while his pretty little wife, Keira Knightley speaking with an odd American accent, waits at home for him to return. I got about halfway through the dvd before it skipped. I might love it if I give it another shot. It seems like the romantic crap that I usually go for.

"Dragon Wars" was a boyfriend pick. A friend from work told us about how absolutely horrible it was and we just had to see it. Considering the last two were my picks I decided to give in and move this piece of movieland crap to front of the queue. I wasn't actually paying attention to the movie. Instead I was surfing the internet in search of new blogs to read and clothes to buy. The only things I got out of the movie was that it starred Jason Behr of "Roswell" fame looking for a girl named Sarah who would be turning 20 soon, it had crazy ninjas who were all dressed very similar, making it extremely hard to make out who was bad or good, and that there was a dragon. Now why didn't this thing get all those fancy awards I'm not sure...

3) My final attempt at regaining normalcy in my life post ProRun is to drink... alot. I have a friend coming back to NYC for a week and during that week I plan on getting completely wasted every night. I'll end up doing absurd shit like volunteering to go back to Oklahoma with him or throwing up on someone I don't like. I can't wait for the fucking amazing time I'll have with my buddy. That being said here are three beers that I drink in no particular order:When I order a pint of Guinness around friends that haven't gone out drinking with me they always look at me like I'm a fucking man. I'm a girl who has developed a love of Guinness and there is NOTHING wrong with that. It's a good drink. I'm quite fond of it. Even more proof that it's awesome comes from this advertisement during WWII:Awesome.

Stella Artois is a Belgium beer. It's lighter in flavor than my beloved Guinness but then again most things I drink are. You may have seen the obnoxiously arty ads in your local indie film theater. I mean... they play them in New York's indie film theaters so I can only assume...

And finally let me just put this out there, I will drink whatever sludge you throw in front of me as long as you're drinking it too. In the end, its all about having fun and getting wasted without spending a fortune. That is where the PBR's of the world come in to fill our alcohol hungry bellies and make us feel like absolute shit in the morning. Drinking any one of these beers will most likely result in what former friends referred to as the "beer shits." I've never been as hungover as I have been after a night of excessively drinking really crappy beer. It's cheap and ready for consumption though and thats all that really matters.

So I hope my lazy attempt at encouraging you to look outside the ProRun box has been enlightening and mind expanding but if it hasn't I'll just leave you with this:

Jillian was just jealous of his fabulosity. Bitch needs to step down and accept the fact that she is not ferosh... at all.